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I still do high end audio and while it is expensive used gear is usually a fair price and cables from monoprice or bluejeancables, transports the signal as well as I have seen. True though that an entry level headphone rig will run over 1k easy, if you want you can pay 2200 or so for a pair of cans. Hobbies make your life more interesting, just having discipline enough to wait until you can pay cash is the hard part.

"Audiophiles" don't buy their cables at monoprice. Do you want to see what a 2000 dollar power cable looks like? Yes, the cable that connects the wall to your electronic component. What makes it more ludicrous is that that is probably 50-100 feet of "crappy" cable from your circuit box to the outlet, and people claim that 3 feet of expensive power cable makes enough of a difference to justify spending hundreds/thousands of dollars. That is why audiophiles hang out at a board called audioasylum. They are all crazy and at one time, I was one of them.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." --Albert Einstein

A friend of mine in Germany started a company for audio gear that may not be totally insane but scratches at the high end level. But his real passion - and money-maker - is working with architects to plan the house and the wiring for optimal sound. Makes a few thousand $$ for a cable look cheap...

"Audiophiles" don't buy their cables at monoprice. Do you want to see what a 2000 dollar power cable looks like? Yes, the cable that connects the wall to your electronic component. What makes it more ludicrous is that that is probably 50-100 feet of "crappy" cable from your circuit box to the outlet, and people claim that 3 feet of expensive power cable makes enough of a difference to justify spending hundreds/thousands of dollars. That is why audiophiles hang out at a board called audioasylum. They are all crazy and at one time, I was one of them.

Hah. That's a great example of the snake oil. One of my favorites is also the cables for digital data transfer... you can't seem to drive it into their heads that it's ones and zeros, it works or it doesn't. Funny how my printer never "loses quality" because of the cable, but your digital audio stream does.

A friend of mine in Germany started a company for audio gear that may not be totally insane but scratches at the high end level. But his real passion - and money-maker - is working with architects to plan the house and the wiring for optimal sound. Makes a few thousand $$ for a cable look cheap...

Stefan

At least there is legitimate science with that, though. Same for speaker rigs and amplifiers. Cables though... sigh.

Hah. That's a great example of the snake oil. One of my favorites is also the cables for digital data transfer... you can't seem to drive it into their heads that it's ones and zeros, it works or it doesn't. Funny how my printer never "loses quality" because of the cable, but your digital audio stream does.

Not total snake oil, but mostly snake oil. It is true that digital cables carries just ones and zeros, but sometime those one and zeros get lost. All digital interfaces/mediums have algorithms that fill in the missing bits but they are guesses and are not totally accurate. There is also things like jitter than can degrade in digital sound quality. An extreme example is if you ever made a VOIP call, and the sound quality is really bad. The main issue is jitter/latency and latency packet loss. However this is something that can objectively measure. You can send a set of bits through a cable and check if the bits actually make it.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." --Albert Einstein

I told my bosses that I started collecting culinary knives, and that they can go up to $20,000 a piece. He told me they collect apartment buildings, and $20,000 won't even get him out of bed.

So to put it in perspective, knives are not a very expensive hobby, and I think it's great to be more into and collect things you're passionate about. Even if it is more then the average person. For me, it's better then collecting blenders, pots, or pans.

Anything you make significant amount of money on is not a hobby. Apartment buildings is an investment. I think we are talking about stuff that we know we are going to lose money on. Knives making equipment is a hobby for me since I will be lucky if I break even just on materials. Where DT and the other knife makers here spend tens of thousands on equipment because it makes them money.

Originally Posted by goodchef1

I told my bosses that I started collecting culinary knives, and that they can go up to $20,000 a piece. He told me they collect apartment buildings, and $20,000 won't even get him out of bed.

So to put it in perspective, knives are not a very expensive hobby, and I think it's great to be more into and collect things you're passionate about. Even if it is more then the average person. For me, it's better then collecting blenders, pots, or pans.

When I can afford that $1,000 Popsicle, then I know I have arrived

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." --Albert Einstein